They Say Em' From the Golden Era - Slang & Memorable Phrases

[MikeBravo]

Your parents must have been very liberal in comparison to mine.
Saying bloody would incur a punishment.
So we use to utilise the opportunity of some-one bleeding to say the word as often as we could.
According to my YR 8 english teacher it is the shortening of a blaspheme "By Our Lady"

I grew up in the 60's and 70's and "bloody" was always a very bad swear word. That has changed now of course and it's considered to be quite quaint, I suppose

 

[MikeBravo]

Here's one from another thread

Super Kawaii Mama posted in the "Comments you get when you dress vintage" thread:

" ... all the other mothers looked like the had been dragged backwards through a hedge!"

That was one of my mother's favourite expressions. Sadly it was usually in reference to me lol

 

[retrogirl1941]

latley while listening to various media from the golden era I have been hearing the word "nertz". Does anyone know what it means?

Samantha

 

[The Wolf]

My understanding is that it's another way of saying "Ah, nuts to you! "

Sincerely,
The Wolf

 

[Feraud]

From Wiki

Hobo lingo in use up to the 1940s
Accommodation car - The caboose of a train
Angellina - young inexperienced kid
Bad Road - A train line rendered useless by some hobo's bad action
Banjo - (1) A small portable frying pan. (2) A short, "D" handled shovel
Barnacle - a person who sticks to one job a year or more
Beachcomber - a hobo that hangs around docks or seaports
Big House - Prison
Bindle stick - Collection of belongings wrapped in cloth and tied around a stick
Bindlestiff - A hobo who steals from other hobos.
Blowed-in-the-glass - a genuine, trustworthy individual
"'Bo" - the common way one hobo referred to another: "I met that 'Bo on the way to Bangor last spring".
Boil Up - Specifically, to boil one's clothes to kill lice and their eggs. Generally, to get oneself as clean as possible
Bone polisher - A mean dog
Bone orchard - a graveyard
Bull - A railroad officer
Bullets - Beans
Buck - a Catholic priest good for a dollar
Buger - Today's lunch
C, H, and D - indicates an individual is Cold, Hungry, and Dry (thirsty)
California Blankets - Newspapers, intended to be used for bedding
Calling In - Using another's campfire to warm up or cook
Cannonball - A fast train
Carrying the Banner - Keeping in constant motion so as to avoid being picked up for loitering or to keep from freezing
Catch the Westbound - to die
Chuck a dummy - Pretend to faint
Cover with the moon - Sleep out in the open
Cow crate - A railroad stock car
Crumbs - Lice
Doggin' it - Traveling by bus, especially on the Greyhound bus line
Easy mark - A hobo sign or mark that identifies a person or place where one can get food and a place to stay overnight
Elevated - under the influence of drugs or alcohol
Flip - to board a moving train
Flop - a place to sleep, by extension: "Flophouse", a cheap hotel.
Glad Rags - One's best clothes
Graybacks - Lice
Grease the Track - to be run over by a train
Gump - a scrap of meat
Honey dipping - Working with a shovel in the sewer
Hot - (1) A fugitive hobo. (2) A decent meal: "I could use three hots and a flop."
Hot Shot - train with priority freight, stops rarely, goes faster. synonym for "Cannonball"
Jungle - An area off a railroad where hobos camp and congregate
Jungle Buzzard - a hobo or tramp that preys on their own
Knowledge bus - A school bus used for shelter
Main Drag - the busiest road in a town
Moniker / Monica - A nickname
Mulligan - a type of community stew, created by several hobos combining whatever food they have or can collect
Nickel note - five-dollar bill
On The Fly - jumping a moving train
Padding the hoof - to travel by foot
Possum Belly - to ride on the roof of a passenger car. One must lie flat, on his/her stomach, to not be blown off
Pullman - a rail car
Punk - any young kid
Reefer - A compression of "refrigerator car".
Road kid - A young hobo who apprentices himself to an older hobo in order to learn the ways of the road
Road stake - the small amount of money a hobo may have in case of an emergency
Rum dum - A drunkard
Sky pilot - a preacher or minister
Soup bowl- A place to get soup, bread and drinks
Snipes - Cigarette butts "sniped" (eg. in ashtrays)
Spear biscuits - Looking for food in garbage cans
Stemming - panhandling or mooching along the streets
Tokay Blanket - drinking alcohol to stay warm
Yegg - A traveling professional thief
Many hobo terms have become part of common language, such as "Big House", "glad rags", "main drag", and others.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobo

 

[Warbaby]

While very likely unique to my family, my favorite expression is one that was frequently used by my grandmother when she was about to express an opinion on something. She would begin by saying, "Well, if I were me, ....."

I've carried on the tradition all my life.

 

[cco23i]

20's and 30's slang

Here ya' go gang! Follow this link and get some great slang for your everyday lives.

Scott


http://xroads.virginia.edu/~MA04/hess/Slang/slangsplash.html

 

[Mr. 'H']

Ain't this a dilly!

(1935)

:eusa_clap

 

[Caity Lynn]

Jeepers! what a swell site!

 

[Shangas]

Very interesting website. I use this, when I want to look up old slang:

http://home.earthlink.net/~dlarkins/slang-pg.htm

The Internet Guide to Jazz-Age Slang.

 

[scotrace]

Threads Merged.

 

[Shangas]

Oh my my my!!

**Faves**

Nice thread!

 

[ShoreRoadLady]

I want to find a copy of this book:

I Love It When You Talk Retro

From the Booklist review:

In his excellent introduction to this language book, Keyes defines retrotalk as a “slippery slope of puzzling allusions to past phenomena,” allusions that employ terms he refers to as “verbal artifacts,” or phrases that hang around in our national conversation long after the topic they refer to has vanished from memory. Hard as it may be for those of a certain age to acknowledge, young people no longer understand references to 45 rpms, breadboxes, and Ma Bell. In addition, one’s comparisons also often fall along generational lines, as talking-head David Brooks discovered when he compared Hillary Clinton’s first debate performance to Emily Post and her second to Howard Beale. The names of the mistress of etiquette and the raving anchorman from the movie Network do not resonate with anyone younger than 50. The bulk of Keyes’ book is devoted to a pedestrian listing of such words and phrases and their origins, grouped in chapters related to the venues, such as boxing, politicians, movies, and comics, that gave rise to the terms. Still, the list makes addictive reading for word nerds and informative browsing for everyone else. --Joanne Wilkinson

 

[BegintheBeguine]

The man I'm seeing now is a cake-eater.

 

[Sleepy LaGoon]

Fillegadusha

This word (or is it possibly more than one word) turns up in several WB cartoons from the 40's, and the only Google reference I can find is a link to a script from "THE CAMEL PROGRAM" in 1943.

This particular word has been bugging me for some time. What does it mean? What is it's origin? Maybe it's just one of those unexplainable things that has no real meaning.

 

[Quigley Brown]

If I ever need change for a dollar I like to word it 'bust this for me, Jackson,' but that's really not my personality...

 

[ShoreRoadLady]

This word (or is it possibly more than one word) turns up in several WB cartoons from the 40's, and the only Google reference I can find is a link to a script from "THE CAMEL PROGRAM" in 1943.

This particular word has been bugging me for some time. What does it mean? What is it's origin? Maybe it's just one of those unexplainable things that has no real meaning.

Only thing I can find is a song called "Rose O'Day (The Filla-Da-Gusha Song)" which seems to have ranked high on the charts for 1942, sung by both Freddy Martin and Kate Smith. Lyrics here. And Gracie Fields sings it in this YouTube clip.

 

[klind65]

Vintage verbiage

My being a logophile not withstanding, I have fallen in love with many of the pithy expressions and words which were in fashion during the Golden Era but have since "taken a powder", to use one such expression. I wonder if many of you, in transforming your clothing and personal presentation in accordance with a vintage sensibility, have a fondness for the way people used to speak?

For example, I was thinking the other day how I much prefer the term "cobbler" to "shoe repair", as it's more precisely a reference to the person doing the repair. I also like "on the level?", " on the square?", "drop dead!", "motorcar", "apothecary", "high-hat", and "fellow" . There are so many wonderful ones and I find they bestow a charm to my speech that "modernly -oriented" folks also like. In some cases, an erstwhile term for something is more cogent or colorful than its modern synonym and in other cases, I simply prefer the way the former word sounds or the feeling it gives me in saying it.

Remember the little superstition -ary phrase couples used to say when, in walking together, something came between them - a pole or barrier, fence....etc...." Bread and Butter"? I thought that was so cute!

 

[NicknNora]

I too like a lot of the slang from past generations but I also like some of the slang from today's generation. Slang like "on the level", "high hat", etc. is fun to use. Remember the movie Ball of Fire with Barbara Stanwyck and Gary Cooper where Stanwyck gives Cooper a tutorial or "run down" on the slang of the day? What a funny movie.

 

[klind65]

I too like a lot of the slang from past generations but I also like some of the slang from today's generation. Slang like "on the level", "high hat", etc. is fun to use. Remember the movie Ball of Fire with Barbara Stanwyck and Gary Cooper where Stanwyck gives Cooper a tutorial or "run down" on the slang of the day? What a funny movie.

Yes! I just saw that a few months ago. It was great, the two characters being perfect foils for each other.